The Maldives

So the last week in Kovalam we decided to go to the Maldives for about a week. Daren has been certified a scuba diver for years and wanted me to get certified as well. We had purchased our airline tickets during our last trip up to Trivundrum. Then the internet went down and we had no way of confirming reservations with a hotel in the Maldives so we just went and found a place when we got there.

So, trying to get airline tickets to the Maldives. The only airline to fly from Trivundrum to the Maldives is Indian Air. This is actually a government run company, and for years there were two different companies. There was Indian Air which was the domestic company and then Air India which was the international company. About a year ago the government decided to merge the two so there would only be one company to make it easier to travel. The new company is called Indian Air – creative, don’t you think? So we have the taxi driver take us to the Air Indian office (which had a sign next to the building advertising the new Indian Air company, but the signs on the door still said Air Indian. Of course we got there at lunch so the office was closed (remember where we are.) We wanted to visit a local Ashram so we went there while the office was at lunch. Once we returned to the Air Indian office, we were told that they don’t fly to the Maldives, we would need to go to the Indian Air office. Are you following? The international division doesn’t fly to the Maldives, which is another country, the domestic division flies to that country, and even though it’s the same company we couldn’t make an international flight reservation at the international flight division because we needed the domestic division!?! India!!! Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense because I’m still not sure how we did it. And just for icing, the domestic division only issues e tickets for flights – we were at the domestic office, but received paper tickets!

It was a 50 min flight from Trivundrum to Male (Mal Lay), the capital city of the Maldives. We were served a beverage before takeoff and a complete hot meal during the flight, plus tea or coffee after the mean before landing. The flight attendant was very nice, but when it came time to serve us we had a choice of vegetarian or chicken, and she looked at us, knowing we are westerners and said “chicken” and we both said “no” vegetarian. I think we confused her for the rest of the flight!

Once at the airport we talked to two different travel agents about hotels here in the Maldives and finally picked one called the Blue Lagoon. You can visit the web site at www.kuramathi.com There are three hotels on this island, and the island is smaller in space that the space the Bellagio, Ceasars and Mirage sit on. The highest point of the island is 6 feet! Pray for no tsunamis! We took a boat ride from the international airport to the island. It was about 60 kilometers away, and took about an hour and 15 min to reach. Everything here is on an island. The airport is an island by itself, etc Most of the islands only have one hotel on it, but because ours is so big they have three. They are however owned by the same company so its really like one big resort. We plan to take an air taxi back to the airport so it will only take 15 min. If your idea of paradise is a tropical island with perfectly blue water, palm trees, cocktails, and white sand then this without any doubt what so ever, paradise!

When we arrived at the island, there were about 16 of us on the boat, they were waiting for us with fresh fruit juices. They then shuttled us to our hotel, which was on the other side of the island. Being here is very similar to a cruise ship as there are coffee shops at each hotel, then there are four very fancy restaurants on the island as well. You have your choice to have bed and breakfast, room and half board, or room and full board. We choose the bed and breakfast because the majority of the meals are served buffet style and they tack on $70 per person per day for full board. This does not include drinking water as you must buy bottled. The water for the showers, etc is desalinated seawater and not suitable for drinking. Plus you eat when they tell you with full board, this way we eat in the coffee shops when we want to.

There are mostly Germans here at this resort. We are not sure why, but we think it’s a large group that all came together. The Maldives does have their own currency, but all the resorts only take US currency, so for the Europeans right now this is great for them. Just like on a ship, they don’t take actual cash except for tips, anything and everything you do is charged to your room.

The majority of our time has been spent diving which will be the next blog, but one of the neatest things for me here on the island is the nighttime bug control. It would be correct to say they have bats on the island. However, bats are small flying rodents, something similar to a mouse or maybe a small rat. (Just in case you didn’t know, they actually are mammals and are related to rodents.) What we have flying around here at sunset and during the night fit more closely to something along the lines of a tyradactle. I have been able to get some good pictures both of them hanging in the trees and of them in mid air!

The next blog will tell you about diving! That entire world that exists just below the surface. Pictures, TV, and aquariums don’t even come close to the experience you have when you are down there in the middle of a school of fish – not 40 or 50 fish, but thousands! I was very excited because they offer underwater cameras here, but the limit was 10 meters and most of my dives were between 20-30m meters (60-100 feet). So sorry to say I have not pictures of the sharks, manta rays, eels, etc that I seen while I was underwater.